Saintly👾👾🛸🛸

Wow, can’t believe it took me so long to find this show (the On This Day feature is the gift that keeps on giving) - and this Saint! What a great vehicle for such an epic psychedelic meltdown - wish I had witnessed something like this in all my adventures! 5 Stars for the Saint alone.

To my ears, this is the best audio in the archive. Five-star scorcher from fall '79. Half-step Tower makes for a really sweet 30-minute double dose of Jerry to start, then followed by a double dose of Bobby with El Paso and Mexicali. Awesome Lazy Lightning->Supplication and Deal to close out the nearly 75-minute set. As usual, with this tour, the real goods are delivered in the second set. Miracle and Bertha make for a rocker opener, which is followed by a Lost Sailer->Saint for the (dead) record books. 19-minute St. of Circumstance! It's must-listen material, which works its way through about 13-minutes of drums/space into a NFA->Stella Blue->Sugar Magnolia to close. Love these 79' NFA jams. Brent's first Casey Jones encores.

The final show of this Nassau run has Brent's first Casey Jones - a song he would play only 18 times. The first night of this run is the best (arguably of the whole tour, else 10/25), and the first set here caused no postcards sent. But the second set is mostly one solid sequence. Tip: listen for the major St. Stephen tease in Not Fade.

First Set. An average start; takes a bit to warm up. Jer starts Franklin's uptempo and then, while he pauses out for a moment, the rhythm sections slows it back down. At 18½min, the only longer one I can think of is the 19min version two shows later; albeit this one has lots of vamp-filled sections (but also kind of meditative). Bobby completely tightens the set with an El Paso. A really good El Paso. Tennessee is pretty draggy but the rest is GOGD.

Second Set. Bobby lays out the set, saying "Miracle and after Bertha my two new ones and then we'll figure it out". Then he launches one of the better sequences of the tour. Miracle has a weirdly fun seg into Bertha. Jer adds some nifty, playful playing, but this Bertha works best in the context of the sequence. The Sailor>Saint is unusually piquant, leading into one of the longest Saint Jams (wait, is this the longest?). Check Brent with the late '70s prog sounds. Such classic Dead through here. Cal Rock to Prog to Psychedelic. The drummers stay out for a classic Space. The rest is below average for fall '79. There is, however, an inspired bit 7min into Not Fade. Before Brent's first Casey Jones, Bobby says "this is only a test". Billy's response: "Hey fuck you guys!".

1st Set:  C
2nd Set: B-
Overall = 3 stars

Highlights:
El Paso - first set suddenly tightens
Bertha - Jer nifty but part of fine Miracle>Space
Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance - sections of classic Dead

SOURCES: The 142393_sbd_miller upped the game for this show. It sounds excellent and has the best patches.